The Problem in Grammar The Problem in Vocabulary The Problem in Mechanics The Problem in Relevance

45

4.3 The Analysis of the Students’ Writing before Treatments Pre-Test

The pre-test that was given to the students was very important to find out the data about their ability in writing a descriptive text especially in English before treatment was given. The pre-test showed that the result of their writing was very low. It seemed that they had difficulty in doing it. The score from each component of their writing was very bad. Here I describe the problems that cause their poor writing:

4.3.1 The Problem in Grammar

They made numerous serious mistakes. Those major mistakes caused difficulty in understanding their writing. There was no mastery of sentence construction. They also did not use correct articles. The problem about the grammar was that the students seldom practiced to writing in English correctly. They only wrote what they wanted to write without thinking about the rule of English grammar. Most of the students had the same problem when they studied about grammar. Studying grammar means studying about tenses. Most of them were still confused about tenses. They did not know what verbs they had to use. The other problem was about differentiating between to be in singular or plural. This fact becomes a serious problem if the students and the teacher do not cooperate together to solve it, especially for the process of teaching and learning English. 46

4.3.2 The Problem in Vocabulary

Vocabulary is an important component when the students want to write a paragraph, especially when they want to write in English. The problem that caused their poor vocabulary was their limited vocabulary of English. They did not know what they had to write and what words they had to use for an appropriate meaning in a sentence. They got difficulty in choosing correct words for their writing.

4.3.3 The Problem in Mechanics

Most of the students thought that writing was the same as speaking. It means that when they were writing in English, they just wrote it without thinking about punctuation, spelling, etc. They did not know where they should put full stop, comma, and so on in a sentence. In order to use mechanics correctly, they should practice regularly and it needs guidance from the teacher.

4.3.4 The Problem in Relevance

Relevance is the component about the writer’s way in relating the content of the story with the topic. In this case, the students lacked their ability to organize a text, so the communication failed. Individual ideas might be clear but it was very difficult to deduce a connection between them. 47

4.4 The Analysis of the Students’ Writing after Treatments Post-Test